What the Thing Is
by The.Eternal.Writer
Summary: When words sometimes fail to portray our true feelings, we rely on the small quirky actions of those around us to interpret what they mean to tell us. Roxas Naminé.
1. One

**What the Thing Is**

_The [Eternal] Writer_

Roxas+Namine

**Summary:** When words sometimes fail to portray our true feelings, we rely on the small quirky actions of those around us to interpret what they mean to tell us. Roxas + Naminé.

* * *

**IMPORTANT NOTE: I do not own Kingdom Hearts or any of its characters. I am only borrowing them for the sake of this story. I do not intend to profit off of this piece or promote for any chance of publication. It is only intented for the private entertainment of the persons reading this online, presumably through the FanFiction website. All credit goes to Square Enix and Disney for their original conception of these characters. On that note, please enjoy.**

* * *

_One_

A beautiful sunrise, an ocean's peace, a tree's simplicity, a castle's magnificence: only a few scenes that not even the most imaginative mind could fathom, not like hers at least.

These images happened to be illustrated in her sketchbook, every detail made exact with a stroke of the artist's pencil. She had spared no detail, and was thoroughly proud of her work. Finishing another picture of a quaint little cottage she had thought up of, she sat back in her chair with a satisfied sigh, letting her shoulder length, sunlight blond hair slip over to her back. Nothing else in the world seemed to penetrate her enlightened achievement.

That nothing including the history lectures her teacher was giving at the moment. The teacher had been in fact, glaring at her the whole class, yet not saying anything, knowing it would be futile to try and call her attention. She would be in her artist's trance until whatever spirit of inspiration had left her mind. He only could hope that as she awakened to his class, she would notice his disapproving expression, unsuccessfully sending daggers at her.

And in the back of that classroom, a soft chuckle was emitted from an apparently amused boy who happened to also have his eyes fixed on the girl artist. He smiled affectionately, his gaze resting on her beautiful locks of hair. Taking in this wonderful vision, he simply leaned on his desk, supporting his chin with his land, his elbow partially holding up the weight of his upper body on his desk surface, wishing he too could be gifted as her in art, just so he could draw as close representations of her beauty as was possible continuously.

She had awoken out of her daydream universe just in time for the bell to ring, signaling not only the end of the class, but of the entire school day. Grinning, she flipped the cover of her sketchbook over her drawing, and shuffled it inside her bag, as fellow students began to file out of the classroom. The teacher gave an exasperated sigh as he erased all of his notes off of the chalkboard, probably thankful he was still alive in this inattentive pool of hormone beings.

The boy made sure he was as slow in packing his books in his backpack as she was, to match her exit time without being stalker-like or unnatural in any way. He took a breath as she rose from her seat and brought her bag up over her shoulder. As smoothly as he could he approached her.

"_Hey…Naminé." He paused as she turned around, smiling in a polite and welcoming way._

"_Roxas!" she exclaimed. "I didn't see you earlier." She tilted her head, a smile still gracing her lips. "You're too quiet back there."_

_He chuckled sheepishly, raising his hand to the back of his neck, rubbing it nervously. "I guess so…as are you."_

_The history teacher let out an all-too natural cough, taking a seat at his desk, opening some especially squeaky metal drawers and slamming them shut, as if he was looking for something. The sudden noise caught the two teens' attention as they laughed softly and exited the classroom._

_Roxas followed Naminé out of the classroom, managing to keep his eyesight above her waistline. She turned around to talk to him, grinning mischievously. "Great lecture, huh?" _

_He laughed. He couldn't help but adore her childlike personality. It was so innocent and inviting, it made him feel slightly warmer than before. "I'm sure you would know, with those lovely visual notes you must have been drawing."_

_She laughed and playfully punched him in the arm. It of course did not a hurt him a bit. Naminé would never have the heart to actually inflict pain on anyone, even if she could. He loved how fragile she seemed. It made him want to hold her, protecting her from any harm that could possibly come her way._

_Smiles were exchanged for most of their trek down the hallway. That form of communication was complete enough for the both of them._

He shook his head; suddenly back to his desk in the back of the history classroom. It was nearly empty except for the history teacher, coughing a bit as he swept the chalk back and forth across the blackboard, Naminé, who was now exiting the room with a notebook tucked under her arm and her bag perched on her shoulder, and Roxas himself, staring longingly at his beautiful vision, that he could only stare at from a distance.

* * *

I plan to put up more chapters soon.

Hope you enjoyed!

If it is not too much trouble, leave a review or any comment! :)

--T[E]W


	2. Two

To xXOnyx-AisuXx: Thanks so much for your comment! You are the first, haha. I'm glad you like.

Bear with me, I'm relatively new. I don't know how to properly respond to comments. If anyone can help out with that, let me know please. :)

* * *

**What the Thing Is**

_Chapter Two_

* * *

****IMPORTANT NOTE**: I do not own Kingdom Hearts or any of its characters. I am only borrowing them for the sake of this story. I do not intend to profit off of this piece or promote for any chance of publication. It is only intented for the private entertainment of the persons reading this online, presumably through the FanFiction website. All credit goes to Square Enix and Disney for their original conception of these characters. On that note, please enjoy.**

* * *

The warm air of summer was gradually becoming more and more peppered with the brisk autumn breezes, swaying back and forth with leaves of the golden color variety. They littered the sidewalk one by one until an occasional gust of wind would come and blow them up against a fence or building side in piles. The piles now lined the edges of the sidewalk and street, in their fragile and crunchy state.

Kicking through the piles out of boredom, Naminé walks lazily down the street, lifting up each leg dramatically to punt ten or so leaves out of her way at a time. Of course it would be just as possible and convenient to just walk over or on top of the leaves, but there was no need to rush home. Fall was only beginning, as school had just started one or two weeks ago, and the air had not cooled down considerably since the hot dog days of summer. As August now turned into autumn, Naminé only let out a sigh. With homework, tests and projects starting to top her priority list, she was afraid of not being able to continue drawing much longer, at least not without failing. She had already been sacrificing class time to ignore her teachers and let out her inspiration, but not paying attention had now made it nearly impossible to know the lessons well enough to efficiently do her homework, which made it all the more longer.

Thinking about it made her groan inwardly and hang her head down in frustration. All she wanted was to draw. Her art class was even constricting, always having to do a certain activity without letting the students freely express themselves. It annoyed her, and out of a quick burst of rage, she ran up to another pile of leaves and furiously gave it a swift kick, sending leaves in every direction.

At that moment, she looked up again, a little bit calmer, and noticed another figure walking ahead of her. She gasped, wondering if he had seen her foolish antics just this moment. She could faintly hear music being blasted out of the headphones he was wearing, and his back was facing her, so he probably had not even noticed. Letting out a breath of relief, Naminé studied the boy more. His spiky locks of hair intrigued her, and his laidback gait made her relax a bit. She then realized who it was. She had seen him many times before at lunch and in history class. He was usually sleeping or distracting himself with something. She giggled, remembering an occasion when the history teacher had caught the slumbering boy and popped a random history trivia question, to publicly embarrass him. To the surprise of everyone, instead of stuttering awkwardly or confessing that he didn't know, he simply shrugged and laid his head back down on his desk, infuriating the teacher of course, but that was Roxas for you.

"Roxas…" she whispered to herself. It was a rebel name. Most boys were named Thomas or Matthew, but his name stuck out, as did hers.

She giggled again to herself. She was often curious about Roxas, and at times, snuck a few sketches of him in her drawing book. It was usually when he was in a leisurely state, playing with his hair or taking a nap. She couldn't help it. He was enjoyable to look at, even though she never had talked to him once. He was somewhat of a loner, like her, but more popular. Kids at least actually talked to him. She had been ignored since they day she had arrived two years before. Once in a while, she would catch someone staring at her, but whenever their eyes met, her observer would quickly turn his head away.

The giggles now turned into sighs.

"It would be nice if a boy noticed me…" she didn't care about being heard. She was talking softly enough, and Roxas would never be able to hear her through those headphones. She could not hear any sound coming from them anymore, but she figured he was still absorbed in his music.

Nonchalantly kicking another pile of leaves, Naminé continued to stare at Roxas, imagining what it would have been like if he ever noticed her.

_At that moment, the figure ahead of her turned around and glanced behind him. With a startled expression, he paused in his tracks, staring at the girl who was lazily plowing through the leaves._

"_Naminé?" he asked, now walking in the opposite direction of before to meet her._

_She gasped and snapped her head up to look at him. "H-hi Roxas," she stuttered quietly with a shy smile._

_He chuckled, now facing her. "Walking home?"_

_She nodded. "Yeah…"_

_He grinned and stood beside her. "How 'bout we go together?" His bright teeth were visible in that ever-so-prince-charming smile gracing his lips. Naminé felt a bit nervous, but nodded._

"_S-sure," Now she just laughed at her own awkwardness, knowing she probably looked like an idiot._

"_It is getting cold," Roxas seemed to be making excuses for her, downplaying whatever crazy thought that was racing through her mind. "It sucks. Summer is gone now."_

_Naminé breathed out a tiny sigh of relief and smiled, more relaxed. "Yeah…I miss it."_

_He nodded in agreement. "Now we get school and homework and ugh…." He groaned, squeezing his eyes shut. "I honestly hate this."_

_She laughed. "I agree. I don't even pay attention to the teachers anymore."_

"_I've noticed." He was now looking down at Naminé with a coy smile. "Those drawings of yours are pretty amazing."_

_She blushed, a little shocked at the compliment. "T-thanks. They're not…that good though."_

"_Are you kidding me?" He was half chuckling. "I wouldn't be surprised if you became famous for it."_

_She playfully stuck her tongue out. "You're just saying that."_

"_Not really."_

_She was caught speechless at that, not knowing what to say, just nodding at his words. Then she shook her head. "It's definitely not helping me though. I don't know what is going on in my math class anymore."_

_He then was silent and she began to worry. Maybe she said something wrong, or stupid. He probably thought she was an idiot. Oh great, her one chance to talk with the boy she admired, and she screwed it up, so badly now that he would probably never talk to her again, not willingly at least._

_She then heard his voice. "Y-you know…" he began, his gaze focused on something far ahead or maybe in the sky. "I'm pretty good…at math I mean." He let out an awkward sounding cough that seemed unnatural as nothing was audibly wrong with his voice._

_She looked up at him. "Oh? You are?"_

"_Yeah…" he shrugged. "If you want…I c-could, uh, help you…if you want of course." He smiled a little, maybe embarrassed._

_Naminé looked down at the ground for a bit. "Would you want to…today?"_

_He snapped out of his gaze and looked at her, eyes a bit wider than before. "S-sure—I mean, now?"_

_She nodded, smiling. "Why not? I think I have some snacks."_

"_O-okay." He chuckled a bit to himself. "Let's go then."_

Naminé shook her head furiously, out of her fantasy. Looking up she saw that she had somehow almost caught up to Roxas who was at the intersection, waiting for the walking signal. She waited behind him, not wanting to be seen.

She then saw him turn his head around, as if to look if anyone he knew was nearby when his eyes fell on her. He seemed startled and snapped his head back around to catch the walking signal blinking before briskly walking across the street.

Sighing, she followed him. It was of course the same reaction as she would have gotten from anyone. Discouraged, she managed to reach the other side about five seconds after the green light appeared for incoming traffic.

Just a couple feet ahead of, Roxas reached his hand up to his face to feel his cheeks, which were considerably pink for the unusually mild weather.

* * *

Thanks for reading!

How 'bout making my day and leaving a review? ;D


	3. Three

To Kit-Kat-Wafer: Yay! Thanks for the nice reviews! Haha, yeah. I like to set up a little intersting setback or two before something happy happens. Roxas and Naminé are my favorite characters and couple. Riku is high on my list as well. I'm not sure where the Naminé/Riku pairing came from. I just randomly thought of it and it...interested me? LOL. Hm. I don't mind his voice. I think overall the casting was pretty good, considering how American/English versions of Japanese entertainment become effed up in the dub versions. A-list stars = way to go in that case. ;]**

* * *

**

**What the Thing Is**

_Chapter Three_

* * *

****IMPORTANT NOTE**: I do not own Kingdom Hearts or any of its characters. I am only borrowing them for the sake of this story. I do not intend to profit off of this piece or promote for any chance of publication. It is only intented for the private entertainment of the persons reading this online, presumably through the FanFiction website. All credit goes to Square Enix and Disney for their original conception of these characters. On that note, please enjoy.**

* * *

"Okay class, today is the day I give you your first term project!" The history teacher was surprisingly bright and cheery for someone who had taught five other classes full of obnoxious, inconsiderate teenagers on this lovely cold Monday afternoon. The class, however, was not so cheery, expressing so in their groans and teeth-sucking.

"Ugh…" Naminé joined in the murmuring as well. A project itself was bad enough, but now it also meant it was just going to distract her further from her artwork.

"Now, now!" the teacher cooed. It's as if his students were kindergarteners. "Don't whine at me. This will be a project worked on in pairs. And you will be able to choose among yourselves."

The groans were suddenly shut silent. Students began to turn heads around and flickers eyes and nod heads, sending secret signals and messages, diving up the classroom into couples already. A squeak of a chair was heard as some students needed to wildly search around for a partner, hopefully glancing into a classmate's eyes before the latter shrugged apologetically. Naminé did not even bother. She knew no one was looking to be her partner. She had already established herself as a loner, an anti-social outcast. It wasn't so bad. She could focus more on what was important to her, but these 'building team skills and cooperation activities' that the school system had implemented to encourage 'cooperative behavior and trust among the student body' were honestly and excruciatingly annoying.

The teacher finally cleared his throat to catch the attention. "We'll discuss this later at the end of class. I will fully explain the project then. For now, I would appreciate if you would so kindly direct your attention to the _front_ of the room so we may resume our lesson."

Naminé sighed and leaned her head down on her desk, letting the bangs fall in front of her eyes. She was definitely not in the mood for a history lecture, especially after a blow to her day like that. It was actually going relatively fine before this period anyway. Why did something like this have to happen last period? Who was she going to work with? Naminé tried to quickly scan all the classmates who were visible, hoping one of them would be nice enough to let Naminé join their group as a third wheel if no other choices were available.

Simultaneously, in the back of the room, Roxas was not in too good of a mood himself. Normally on projects, he would work with Hayner, whom he considered his best friend at this school. However Hayner had to switch out of Roxas' class due to class scheduling conflicts only a week ago. Roxas knew a good number of kids in this class, but none he would bring himself to work with.

Well, except Naminé that is. But he was too shy to ask her. Although if she didn't already have a partner, she would have no choice but to accept his offer. On that hand, she could in fact have a partner that she was planning to work with; even though he never saw her head make the slightest motion during that whole exchange – glance commitment agreement ordeal. He closed his eyes and rubbed his temples in frustration. He was at a loss for ideas. Maybe he should just go ahead and ask her.

--

"Now about that project…" The bell was soon to ring in a few minutes and most of the kids were beginning to pack up their belongings. They turned their attention to him however when he mentioned the 'project'.

"You and your partner will choose any event in world history from any time period, legend or fact, and research it. Your research will result in the two of you writing up a five to seven page paper on what it was and how it affected history. In addition to the paper, you will create a poster or visual image of your choice. Heck, you can even make a movie if you want." The teacher chuckled. His creative side was coming out. "I will make a packet containing more details and a timeline of the due dates for each stage of the assignment. In the end, you and your partner will present your event to the class. I advise you to become _very_ knowledgeable about this topic, as I and your fellow classmates will be asking you questions during your presentation. Choose your partners wisely. Work with someone you will get along with and _actually do work with_." He glared at a few troublemakers and chatterboxes in the class. "This is a major grade. It will count for a good percentage, so don't slack off. And furthermo—"

He was finally cut off by the bell, causing the class to burst into full volume noisy discussion and antics, yelling, cursing, and running out the door, verbally confirming their partner choices. Naminé lazily pushed herself up from her desk and slowly packed each book into her bag. She sighed again. She still had no partner.

Roxas was just about as slow as her. He always was, just to look at her. He stood there thoughtfully, contemplating whether or not he should ask her. It was just a project, after all, not a date. They both probably needed partners anyway. It was simple, really. All he would have to do was go up to her and ask her.

_Approaching Naminé, Roxas cleared his throat. "Hey Naminé. Are you working with someone on the project?"_

_She shook her head, with a slight smile. "No, I don't have a partner yet. Do you?"_

"_No," he swung his head from side to side as well. "I was actually going to ask you…if you wanted to be my partner."_

_There. He said it._

_She looked at him for a moment, and nodded her head grinning. "Sure."_

Out of dreamworld, Roxas immediately searched to see if Naminé was still there. He caught her foot in the air, as she was leaving out the door. Frantically stuffing his books into his backpack, Roxas rushed out to catch up with her.

"N-Naminé!" he choked out as he ran up to her.

She turned around. He froze. It was the first time he had actually approached her like this. Sure, they knew about each other's existence, but no one had actually ever acknowledged the other. Nervous thoughts were racing through his mind. What if she didn't want to talk to him? What if she was annoyed? What if she said no to whatever he asked? He gulped, waiting to see if she would reply.

"Rox…as?" She said his name slowly, in a questioning matter. She was shocked that he had come up to her. What did he want? There was nothing about her that he could care about, so she thought.

It took him a minute to register that she had actually spoken back and that he was looking like a complete idiot standing there, looking at her with a bewildered expression on his face.

"U-Uh…" He stammered out. "I-I was just going to ask you…if you…uh…wanted…or no…if you…had a partner…you know….for the history thing?"

She blinked a few times, in disbelief. Was he going to ask her to be his partner? No, that would be weird. But why else would he ask something like that? And why was she so nervous? It wasn't like he was asking her out on a date. He wouldn't do that. Not to her, at least.

"N-no…I don't," she said, somewhat softly. She looked down, to shy to look up at his face.

He seemed embarrassed. "Well…I don't either." He rubbed the back of his neck, nervously.

That caused her to glance up at him, for a second. "Oh, you don't?" Why doesn't she just do it? She has nothing to lose.

"Yeah…" he muttered looking down. He was half-expecting her to ask him, hoping that maybe she was interested a tiny bit in him. It was a long shot, but it would have been nice. He was seriously starting to doubt himself now. Maybe she was just waiting for him to go away.

"Oh…" Her answer was so calm and nonchalant, but internally, her mind was waging a battle against her heat. Logic versus desire. She wanted to be his partner, but did not feel right asking him. He, of course, approached her, but she was just to shy to ask him. This was going nowhere, but if he had wanted it to go somewhere, he would have asked her already right.

Finally, he took a deep breath and spewed it out. "Do you want to be my partner?"

They both looked up at each other, both surprised he had said that.

He said it.

He finally did it.

Inside, his mind was having a fiesta, singing and dancing, and doing the tango with his heart.

It wasn't anything special, like asking her to be his girlfriend, but he had at least _spoken_ to the girl. He stared into her eyes, anxiously, waiting for her answer. Even though he had built up his courage, it was the moment of truth that would either send it skyrocketing or instantly crashing.

"I…" she began, not knowing what to say. He had asked her, but she didn't know how to reply without sounding stupid.

She shook her head,

Then stopped, realizing that was the wrong reaction. She nodded and stuttered, "S-sure."

Roxas had first cringed when he saw her seemingly refusing him so bluntly. He could have collapsed. Now he could be just as easily knocked over with a gentle breeze. The party in his mind grew larger and larger, before he had to fight the strong urges to jump and scream and pump his fist into the air.

He simply chuckled and nodded. "Cool."

"Yeah," she smiled in return.

"Should I call you later or something? So we can discuss what we want to do?" He felt like the biggest guy in the world, in a figurative sense. He felt formidable…even invincible. Nothing could ruin him now.

"That sounds good." Naminé continued to beam at him, thankful that something good had come out of that horrible class.

"Cool…" Roxas repeated. "Then it's decided….see you tomorrow I guess."

"Mhm," she nodded her head. "See you."

They both turned around walking in opposite directions, grinning like complete love-struck idiots. And idiots they both were, realizing after they were no longer in sight of each other that neither had the other's phone number.

"Oh—"

* * *

_R-r-r-r-review Time_~! ;D


	4. Four

To appleRbear: Glad you did. Here ya go!

BTW: For some reason, I can reply directly to some reviews, but not to others. Does that have anything to do with that user's privacy settings or what not? I don't understand.

* * *

**What the Thing Is**

_Chapter Four_

* * *

"Oh crap. Oh man…" An overly worried Roxas was pacing his room back and forth, scratching his head nervously. He seemed extremely stressed out about something in particular.

"How could I be so _stupid_?" Apparently, his own idiocy had finally set upon him, after the realization that he forgot to ask for Naminé's phone number earlier. Now how was he supposed to call her? Maybe he could ask a friend. But who does he know talk to Naminé? Come to think of it, he never saw her talk much to anybody at all. Was she really that approachable? She seemed nice enough earlier.

Groaning in defeat, Roxas plopped back on to his bed and fell back with an exasperated sigh. Maybe he should just wait until tomorrow. But would it be too late by then? Would she consider him any less trustworthy for breaking his promise to call her? She would understand though, right? Of course, she never gave him her number. But maybe she was relying on him to _ask_ for it. No, that can't be. Maybe.

In the midst of his extreme confusion, Roxas sifted through ideas in his mind when one suddenly popped up, like random golden treasure for him.

"A _phonebook_!" he suddenly yelled, sitting straight up again. "That's it!"

He shot up and started running around frantically for the thick yellow and white directory that could just be the answers to all his current problems. Clearing his desk, literally by taking an arm and wiping off everything on it onto the floor, his eyes scanned his surroundings. He flung open drawers and knocked around books, threw around pencils and papers, and even dove into his closet headfirst until he found what he was looking for.

There in his nearly trembling hands was what may as well have been as holy as the Bible. It was a fairly new edition of the local phone directory. Almost everyone registered in the area was listed there. The front cover was folded in a bit, along with the first seven or more pages. There weren't any liquid spills or funny-looking substances on it, thankfully, and nothing seemed to be ripped or missing.

Grinning in triumph, he dropped the book onto the ground and lay on his stomach to search through the pages.

"Naminé Memóire" he muttered to himself repeatedly. "Memóire, Memóire…" She had to be there.

He flipped through the pages, skipping from the A's to the C's in one flip, continuing until he reached the 'Mea' section of last names. Skimming down the list with his eyes at an incredible rate, he whispered rapidly the first three letters of her last name to himself.

"M, E, M, M, E, M, M, E, M"

Once he reached 'Memmale' he started mumbling the first two syllables "Memói…Memói…"

There he found it, Memóire, right under Memoak. His face could have been split in two with that smile he was wearing on his faces.

Well, until that is, he found that there were _two_ Memóires in the same town. Muttering a curse, he tried to differentiate between the two. Unfortunately, all that was listed with the last name was a street address and the home phone number. He had no idea where Naminé lived, so that wasn't particularly helpful. He would just have to call both and hope the first guess was correct.

Searching for his cell phone that was on top of the mess thrown off his desk, he grabbed it and began to immediately dial the first one, hoping for the best of convenience.

* * *

Back in her own home, Naminé also began to worry about the exchange she had with Roxas. She was deeply happy someone had genuinely talked to her, and actually asked _her_, the self-proclaimed outcast to be his partner. She knew just well that it probably was because he could not find anyone else. But at least he had not chosen to work alone instead.

What was troubling was Roxas' promise to call her. She never recalled giving him her number and wondered if she would even talk to him before tomorrow. She doubted any conversation between them until then, since there was no means of communication at the moment, but she was still just a little hopeful. It was impossible, she already knew, but it still was a nice thought. She giggled to herself.

Sighing, she lay down on her bed and stared at the ceiling musing through ideas for her next drawing. She was tired of locations. Lately all she had been sketching were trees, oceans, houses, rivers, etcetera etcetera. She wanted something different. She wanted to draw a person, someone real to her, but fantasy like. Like the perfect boy. Not like she knew anyone though who could fit _that_ criteria.

And at that moment, the phone happened to ring.

* * *

Uber short chapter + cliffhanger = interesting reviews, no? *winkwink*


	5. Five

To Kit-Kat-Wafer: Haha, now that I think about it, Memmale reminds me of 'mammal' lol.

^ This is basically how I'm replying to reviews I can't directly reply to, lol. Just so you know.

* * *

**What the Thing Is**

_Chapter 5_

* * *

"_Hello?"_

"_Hey Naminé. It's Roxas."_

"_Oh, hi."_

"_I guess we should figure out what we should do about that project, huh?"_

"_Yeah, do you have any ideas?"_

"_Not particularly. I thought it'd be cool though, if we could do a unique story."_

"_Unique?"_

"_Yeah…like instead of _just_ a world event, it could be a personal event."_

"_Like…a love story?"_

"_Yeah…"_

"_I…uh…"_

"_What?"_

"_I think it's great."_

As the phone sharply rang, Naminé stood up straight in shock. The phone seemed louder, just since she didn't expect it to ring at that moment. Not wanting to miss his call, Naminé ran to the other side of her bedroom to her desk, pushing random textbooks and hair clips out of the way, until she uncovered her cordless phone.

Breathlessly, she pressed the 'talk' button and held it up to her ear.

"H-hello?" she was breathing slightly hard, probably because of all the adrenaline rushing through her veins and arteries at the moment."

"Hi," the other voice answered. "I'm looking for a Mrs. Memóire?"

That was not Roxas' voice.

Naminé, who had been expecting Roxas to call her. She was silent for a few moments, completely dumbstruck, not even bothering to force a sound from her mouth.

A few moments late the voice spoke again. "…Ma'am?" it asked, hesitantly, unsure if the girl had already hung up on him.

"Uh…oh! I'm sorry, yes?" Naminé managed to sputter out.

"Is Mrs. Memóire there?" The voice seemed…cordial. Polite, but clearly there was some business-concerning intentions behind it. A telemarketer.

Naminé held the phone away from her for a second to let out a sigh so the man wouldn't here. "No, she's not. Do you want me to take a message?"

"No, that's fine. Is there a better time to call?"

Naminé was getting annoyed now. "No," she replied flatly.

"Ah, well thank you anyway," the telemarketer sounded slightly disappointed at failing at a sale.

"Good night," with that, Naminé hung up the phone and turned around to drag herself back to her bedroom.

The phone rang again. Naminé only stared at it. Was it Roxas? No, it wasn't last time. But it could be this time. Maybe it was her mom. It would be like her to call Naminé for no apparent reason. But still. There was no harm in answering. Besides, if it was Roxas and she simply ignored the phone, she would ruin any chance she had to conveniently talk to him. Well…maybe not that drastic, but it would still be bad.

Sighing, Naminé finally picked up the phone.

"Hello?" she replied, without a trace of enthusiasm, so unlike earlier.

"Hi….uh, Naminé?" the voice could belong to any regular high school boy. It was slightly deep, but completely filled with awkwardness.

"Roxas?" He wouldn't be able to see it, but her eyes widened with hope.

"Yeah!" He sounded more confident, and gladder. He had gotten the number right on the first try.

She grinned. He actually called….but what did she say now? She doesn't really talk to people much, especially not on the phone. "Uh…"

There was the sound of something shuffling. Roxas was moving his papers off of his desk chair so he could sit down. "I guess we should talk about that history project."

"Y-yeah," she agreed, nodding her head, not knowing why, since he couldn't see it. "Do you have any ideas?"

"Mhm…" there was an awkward chuckle. "I don't really actually. Do you?"

She pondered thoughtfully for a moment. In all the anticipation, she hadn't done any work. "N-no…" she paused.

"What do you think we should do?" Roxas was leaning back in his chair, staring at the ceiling.

Nervously, Naminé sat down on the floor, tracing her finger across the carpet, drawing imaginary shapes. "Maybe we can choose a time period."

He picked up a pencil off of his desk and placed the eraser end on the tip of his nose, leaning his head back to balance it, unsuccessfully. He caught it as it fell down to his shirt. "Sure…which one's your favorite?"

"None of them," Naminé laughed. "I don't even pay attention in that class."

Roxas knew that already. He always saw her drawing, and often, watched her doing so. But he couldn't say that, unless he wanted his partner to forever shun him for being so incredibly creepy. He just laughed. "Yeah, me neither."

"Mhm…"Naminé paused, thinking of an idea, or at least something she remembered. Didn't they have a unit of some recent time periods the year before? "How about the fifties?"

"Sure," he immediately agreed, mostly because he did not have any ideas of his own. He gave it more thought. "It's recent."

Naminé became self-conscious of her idea. "Is that…bad?"

Roxas shot himself forward, raising his voice. "No, no, no, no! It's great! That's why."

"Oh," she was a little surprised at his reaction, but smiled. "Thanks!"

Now Roxas seemed inspired. "We could do something cool, interesting. Like something to do with music."

She nodded, then said "Yes." Because he obviously could not her actions. "I think it was getting really popular back then. At least dancing."

"Yeah," he laughed. "We should check if it's okay tomorrow."

"That sounds good." It seemed her vocabulary in social conversation was extremely limited. "I—"

At that moment, she could hear a voice from downstairs. "Naminé?!" the voice questioned.

Naminé covered the phone so Roxas wouldn't hear. "Yes Mom?" Crap.

Roxas became nervous. "…Naminé?"

Still with the phone away from her, Naminé listened for footsteps coming close. She slightly panicked then held the phone back up, hearing Roxas constantly calling her name.

"Naminé, are you—"

"Hey," she said in a whisper. "I have to go now, sorry. I'll talk to you tomorrow though, okay?"

He was somewhat surprised. What was going on over there? "Oh…uhm, sure. That's fine. See you."

"Bye." Naminé pressed the 'end' button and placed it back on the desk. She rushed to her bed and threw the sketchbook under. Grabbing a textbook she opened it up to a random page and moved her eyes back and forth, trying to look like she was studying. Her bedroom door opened.

"Naminé?' A blond middle-aged woman opened the door, peering around. "You here?"

"Right here," Naminé answered from her bed, not looking up, looking like the ever-so-dedicated student.

Her mom smiled. "That's my girl. You'll do good if you keep these habits up." She walked over to the bed and sat down at the end.

"Mhm…" Naminé didn't know what else to say. These weren't her real habits.

"I heard you talking though." Her mom glanced at the phone. "Were you on the phone with someone?"

"Oh…it was…just a telemarketer." Naminé flipped a page of what was apparently a algebra book, no, it was physics actually. Like she could tell.

"Asking for me, huh?" her mom chuckled. "Those guys are really annoying." She stretched her arms up, yawning a bit. "Ah, work is so tiring these days. Did you eat dinner Naminé?"

"Yeah," Naminé nodded. She didn't really, but if she told her mom she wasn't hungry, she would probably receive a lecture on nutrition.

"That's good." I'm going to have a meal and maybe see if anything good is on TV. Whenever you're done studying you can join me. Or just go to sleep if you want. That's probably better. You have school tomorrow."

"Okay, Mom." Naminé nodded again, listening to her mother's instructions. She wasn't exactly strict, but she could be nosy, and being an introvert was the easiest way to avoid her mother's nose in her business.

"Good night, Naminé," he mother got up and walked out the door, closing it slowly and gently.

Naminé sighed and rolled across the bed, staring at the ceiling. She closed her eyes, a bit tired now. She had no idea what to expect tomorrow. At least she was on speaking terms with someone, especially someone like Roxas.

She fell asleep with a thin smile lingering on her lips the whole night.

* * *

Click that glorious button and type those wonderful words, if you please.

At least if you catch any grammatical/mechanical errors, let me know.

Advice is always welcome. :D


End file.
